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About (Late) Last Night: David Letterman tries on Snooki's slippers

February 11, 2011 | 8:45
am

Perhaps you've heard of Snooki? She is the shy and retiring star of the MTV juggernaut, "Jersey Shore," who was arrested last summer after a drinking binge that began around 9 a.m. Last night she stopped by "The Late Show" for the second time in a month. She's already made the rounds to plug her book, "A Shore Thing," and we're already several weeks into the latest season of "Jersey Shore," so it wasn't clear exactly what she was there to promote -- other than herself, that is. David Letterman has a reputation as a prickly interviewer, one who doesn't do much to disguise his contempt for some of the "celebrities" he interviews. Snooki never stood a chance.

For most of the segment, Letterman relentlessly grilled the self-proclaimed "drunken meatball" about her drinking habits. It seemed possible, for a moment, that the whole bit might be a staged mea culpa for Snooki, an opportunity, perhaps, to say something responsible about her excessive drinking. But no. Snooki -- whose confidently flashing neon stilettos contrasted with her nervous demeanor -- claimed that she's really just "a laid-back girl that would rather stay in and watch movies at night than go to a freaking club." A few seconds later, she explained her partying by saying that "You're at the shore. Obviously you want to go out," and she simply couldn't understand why everyone was making such a big deal out of her arrest. "Everyone took it so seriously. Stuff happens." All righty then.

CBS has made very little of the interview available on their website, and I wonder whether it's because they were uncomfortable with Snooki's unrepentant attitude about her booze binge, or if it's because Snooki did not exactly make a great impression (it seemed pretty clear that she didn't know what Letterman meant by the word "belligerent," and there's no chance she understood his joke about doing shots with "stevedores and longshoremen"). The clip above was probably the most innocuous, least awkward moment from the segment. As the interview was winding down, Letterman asked Snooki about her future plans. Naturally, she told him "I definitely want to brand myself." (Translation: Lend my name to cheap novelty wares made in China.) Letterman then modeled Snooki's slippers, available for the low, low price of $29.99.